THERE is no need for more Bahasa Malaysia lessons for international students as they are already required to study communication in the language as part of general studies, former deputy education minister Teo Nie Ching said today.

Teo was referring to the government’s proposal to make it compulsory for international students to learn Bahasa Malaysia.

“They (students) also have the opportunity to study Islamic and Asian civilisation studies (Titas) (in Bahasa Malaysia).

“The programme was implemented in 2014 by every local university that takes in international students,” she said in a statement.

Last week, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said foreign students would be required to learn Malay when they enrol at Malaysian universities.

He said Higher Education Minister Noraini Ahmad had agreed that the subject be made compulsory for all foreign students.

Teo said both academics and international students were puzzled over the prime minister’s demand for something that already exists.

“For example, Zaharom Naim, an academic at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, has described such suggestions as politically inspired, especially so as they were made at the recent Umno general assembly.

“It seems that the prime minister did not check or ask Noraini about the issue first to learn the facts before making the announcement.”

The DAP national publicity secretary said the government should review the syllabus if it intended the make changes.

“I hope the prime minister did not speak on the party stage (Umno general assembly) merely to get the support of members (with the result that it has )wasted time and confused the people, without checking what has been implemented at the ministerial level.” – March 26, 2022.